There was disappointment for Kiwi Marcus Armstrong as Ralf Aron took the third race of the Formula 3 European Championship round at Misano.

Aron reveled in the rain and had an exciting duel with Armstrong in the opening laps but was a clear winner when title contender Armstrong was spun out of contention.

After a safety car start, the race was red-flagged on lap two due to torrential rain, but restarted after the cars had waited 20 minutes in the pitlane.

Poleman Armstrong looked unbeatable early on, opening up a 1.7-second gap on Prema Powerteam stablemate Aron on the first lap.

But Aron fought back and on lap six he dived down the inside of Armstrong at Turn eight to take the lead.

Aron was almost a second ahead when the safety car was called after Motopark duo Sebastian Fernandez and Marino Sato slid off into separate gravel traps.

The restart proved Armstrong’s undoing, when Juri Vips dived down his inside into Turn 16 before the start-finish line, and then Ferdinand Habsburg also got momentum on the Kiwi to move into third.

Armstrong was then spun by Prema teammate Guan Yu Zhou at turn four in an incident that put both out of the race.

The New Zealand driver is now third in the championship with 190 points behind British driver Dan Ticktum (222 ) and Juri Vips (210). A second place in race one helps keep the Kiwi in sight of the title.